


Motor City Con Review

by yourlibrarian



Series: Convention Write Ups [7]
Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Conventions, Gen, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:35:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29890890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlibrarian/pseuds/yourlibrarian
Summary: Ypsilanti, Michigan in June 2005.  Originally posted June 7-9, 2005.
Series: Convention Write Ups [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2196066
Kudos: 1
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	Motor City Con Review

I have to say our experience at the Motor City Con turned out pretty well, mostly due to the relatively small group of attendees. We had purchased weekend passes plus tickets to James Marsters’ performance a few months in advance. Three things really made the decision for us. One was, of course, who would appear at the con (I didn’t even hear about the event until it was announced James would sing at it). The second was that it was within driving distance, and not in the middle of a semester; in other words, convenient. The third was that we didn’t have to pay for lots of extras we didn’t care about like autographs and photos. So many cons bundle everything into expensive packages which always include these two things. Really we just wanted general admission into Q&As and any other general audience events (rather than, say, cocktail parties and karaoke). 

The con began with a concert that was more of a rehearsal by James Marsters. James seems to have an issue with not being taken seriously because he’s a TV actor. He mentioned his status as such after the opening number, “Every Man”, and a few more times later in the show.

He announced “This Town” and then stopped and said, “In case you haven’t noticed yet, I feel no need to give you a [well rehearsed show].” He mentioned for the first of two times that he thinks the best shows take place when mistakes occur because it makes the process more real. He then began the shtick of asking how many men were in the audience, how many “got dragged here by your woman.” Then he again did the usual “make it worth their while” and “I don’t know if I’m man enough to do what you guys are doing. I don’t know if I’d take them to see some TV star with a guitar. Guys, thank you. Girls, [sexy voice] thank you.”

He mentioned that he had been playing since he was 13 but put music on the back burner. “And I feel like I’ve gone from being a really, REALLY great amateur to being a TERRIBLE professional.” He mentioned he was over at a friend’s house who was also friends with Tom Petty and got to play some songs together with him. Then, imitating Petty, James said that Petty told him “Dude, you’ve got good melody. Your chords are a bit traditional but you’ve got good melody.”

Then he stopped himself from starting again and said “I recently fell kind of in love, well, not kind of, very much in love,” and something I didn’t quite catch, before he sang “Over Now.” Afterwards he made fun of himself for being melodramatic and self-pitying with his closing “So what” line. He warned that the next song was no less so.

Then he began talking to some guy in the fourth row to whom he spoke often throughout the show. “Guys, have you ever given a girl, the wrong thing. Like this thing you’ve always wanted to give her, like jewelry, and she puts it on, and it’s WRONG! And she’s trying, she’s trying to make you feel good about it, but you just know.” Then he sang “Finer Than Gold.” He then asked if he should record that and everyone cheered so he said, “Ok, I will.”

James then talked about how touring was a great time for songwriting because music was so important to you day after day. He then talked about how there was an artist opening up for him in Liverpool “who was so close to what I wanted to be, I got nervous. And then I went back to talk to him and I found out the same was true for him.” They both loved the same music like Dylan and Springsteen, “And he had a chord progression I really loved, so I ripped it off. That’s how music works. So I phoned him up from the road and asked him his permission for it. He said ‘Why do you think I showed you the chords, you showed me eight times as much. I’m ripping YOU off!’” Then he played “London Town.” 

Afterwards he asked if the song worked, then said he’d do one more number before trying some rock stuff “Or at least as much rock as one man can give you.” He said he wrote the song a long time ago but GotR didn’t find it to be a song for the group, he didn’t know why. Then he did his routine about thinking there was a band behind him and calling out their names before doing “Smile.”

There was a break then to change from acoustic to electric and James explained again that it wasn’t going to be a perfect performance and that he didn’t want things to be too planned. 

He introduced “Civilized Man” by saying “This was about a guy I worked with in Canada who turned out to be coke addict. I just thought he was a jerk!” After getting through a bit of it, his A string broke and he said “I’m going to turn this off now, we’re going to come back in about 5 minutes and are going to rock this show, ok?” Then he left with a rather dramatic door kick. Some 5-10 minutes later he came back, completed the song, and announced, “Me and my new friend, the A string. Let’s see how good a friend she is.” 

An interesting event was his paying tribute to a man who had come to see him from Chicago. Apparently he'd known James during his days there as a struggling actor and theater producer. When I was buying a copy of the CD and DVD before the show the man introduced himself to Steve Himber and gave him something to give to James. I think it must have been given to him when he was getting the guitar fixed because when he came back on stage he did a shout-out to the guy and explained how he had been given $3K by him to put on another performance of a show he produced. 

Then he began his gender discussion of the evening. “How many men feel like that? You know what I mean? You ever feel like ‘I want to be who I am but maybe I should just watch football?’” Someone yells out “Hockey is better!” “No, the point is that men are [something I didn’t catch again] but that society is set up like a gilded cage, with lots of mattresses and lots of soft spaces and if you want to be a MAN, it’s all counter to what you want to do which is to go out into the wild world and hunt something. But WOMEN, God bless you, have been so successful, there’s very little wild space left to hunt in. And animals don’t have any place to live. The problem is not hunting but taking away the space of the creatures to live in. Let men hunt, let them go kill something, so they don’t hunt YOU. Yeah. Men are cool, men are very cool, it’s just that society is not built for them. Society is built for safety, society is built for children. The whole point of society, I think, is for children. I’m a dad, so I appreciate that. I love it, it’s great. But it is not for guys, [something] kick them out. You know what I mean?” Then perhaps realizing that this was a ridiculous soap box for him to be on he said, “I know I’m a TV star, but I’m still a guy! Screw it man, no apologies. This one’s called 'Bad'.” He began “We met,” and then broke off with “Oh, this one’s about you guys, this one’s about a _very_ good experience I had.” 

James later thanked the crowd for giving him an audience to perform to, mentioning that some people play to crowds of 5 people and he gets to have a full house (which it wasn’t by half actually). For an artist it was really important to have an outlet, and as an actor in Hollywood you don’t really get that but in music he can. He rambled on a bit more about that until he added “My manager’s in the back going SHUT THE FUCK UP!” as he waved his arms. “By the way, if you want the CD go back and get it, but don’t try to haggle with him because he’ll kill you. This one’s called ‘Dangerous’ It’s a little secretive so you can try and guess who it’s about.” He added at the end that there were always some people who thought he was going “Yeah baby” with the song but it was intended for a young girl and he held his hand out to indicate height.

“Ok these are a couple that I tried to get on the original album for GotR but Charlie liked one of them but not the other, don’t know why. But this one’s called “Dangerous.” Then realizing his mistake he shook his head and said “This one’s called...” As people laughed and clapped he explained he was supposed to fly in early and have a nap but his plane was stuck on the tarmac for 2 ½ hours and he came off his flight directly to the sound check. “But if I don’t bring it, throw something at me. This one’s called ‘Goodbye’.” He started with a few chords and then stopped. “This is what happens when you write a lot of songs.” Then he confessed he couldn’t remember it and said “Help me man, you guys know it.” After some more head shaking he said “I’m going to do away with the encore. Can I do that? There’s a big game that we play where I go backstage and you clap, and can we do that?” The audience agreed and he played “For What I Need” saying it had a lot of double entendres. Which rather made me think of the line of how Anya had mastered the single entendre.

After that he played the new song, “Lou” and closed with “Birth of the Blues.” What was interesting was that when he left the stage, Julie Caitlin Brown had to call people to stay for the “special event” where he signed the stand-up and guitar, since she’d apparently missed his skipping the encore discussion, and people were getting up to leave. He was brought back out despite his skipping the encore to sign a Spike cut-out for the weekend charity auction and be presented with a guitar for his signature and donation to the auction. This was done by a girl (under 10 I'm guessing) . James was told she was donating the guitar and he told her it was a very nice one and shook her hand. Julie Caitlin Brown asked him to play another number even though he'd already announced he had played everything he'd written and would be liable for royalties otherwise. Both misinterpreted what Steve Himber was signalling about that, so James went out of the room to get his guitar and then returned but said he didn't know what to play until people started shouting various requests (including "Freebird" which he sang a line of). He remembered he still hadn't played "No Promises" so he played that before saying goodnight and suggesting that the audience go off and have drinks with their friends, and that maybe we'd all end up at the same bar together. I noticed later he had 3 more songs on his CD that he didn't play ("Katie", "Patricia", and "Long Time").

All in all I'd have to say I found the show unsurprising. Having read other people's reviews and comments on earlier performances a lot of the chat was the same, the wobbly songs are still wobbly, the better songs are better and it was all VERY informal. He seemed very ready to get the whole thing over with to me, friendly, but dutiful nonetheless.

#################

Saturday started with the charity auction at noon and then the Q&As. We were a few minutes late to the auction, which must have started on the dot, because it gave us little time to get back with take-out from a restaurant (most of which open at 11 at best). As we were hurrying up to our room Danny Strong got off the elevator and then exchanged a few words with a guy waiting with us. My SO will never live down the fact that he was standing right next to him and neither recognized him nor even noticed him.

There were two big items, a Spike stand-up signed by James and a guitar signed by all the attending guests. The guitar was done nearly last and was the biggest fundraiser at $1000, but it had actually foundered around $500 until the con sound man threw in James’ handwritten set list, at which point it went for $1000. (After seeing how small the list was it didn’t surprise me he had so much trouble reading it the night before).

However the stand-up went on really early, just minutes after we got there which seemed strange since we were hardly alone in straggling in late. Mike noted that the auctioneer, Julie Caitlin Brown (JCB), also did her final count way too fast for items. I think they could have raised a bit more with more patience. But then there were a lot of items and they never even got around to some of them due to time constraints, so what do I know. The James stand-up was interesting for 2 reasons. For one, when he came onstage to sign it he had given himself a big smack on the lips, which may have been caught on film by some people. A photo of the event was offered as part of the purchase. We’ll have to see if this inspires a new rash of twin-fic. Interesting tidbit: the stand-up is about an inch taller than he is as opposed to the Buffy stand-up which is like twice her size. So if you've never seen him and want to know how tall he is? Now you can find out.

The second interesting thing was that James had signed the stand-up twice. In more evidence of his hurry and distraction Thursday night, when he first signed it he signed his name as he usually does rather than with his “official” signature. Then, apparently unhappy with how he’d done it, he did the official signature below the first signature. Kind of a nifty keepsake really. I wouldn’t have minded having this item.

After the auction came a lengthy seating process. Only 50 or so people were around for the auction so people sat anywhere. Photo sessions were going on in another room so there was no reason for reserved seating. Being weekend pass holders (I think there were maybe a dozen of us and we were just lumped in with day pass people) we would be at the back of course but on our badges were row and seat numbers. Problem is the row was J and the rows only went to H. So we were made to sit on the wings of the last row. We were lucky enough to be on the aisle so really the view was fine. And a lot of the pass holders never showed up to their seats so there was still lots of extra seating after the first 5 rows.

#################

 **Kali Rocha** went on first, with JCB announcing that her first con ever had been this year’s Collectormania and to go easy on her. She was very pleasant and professional about the whole thing, thanking the questioner after finishing each reply. 

When asked if some of Halfrek’s gestures came from Endora on “Bewtiched” Kali said she hardly ever saw TV growing up, her parents were “hippies, I mean, Kali, right?”

Kali has a sitcom in January of next year done by some of the folks from “Scrubs” and she plays a vice-principal.

People kept asking her who she enjoyed working with, wanting her I imagine to talk about James, but she instead said the best working relationship she had was with Ben Stiller, and she also had a great time working with Emma, who she knew through mutual friends. She also thought Michelle Trachtenberg did a nice job with her role as Dawn in “Older and Far Away.” She enjoyed chatting with James Leary and the actor who played D’Hoffryn.

Kali feels that Cecily did care about William but due to the class issues involved with him being an artist (artistic type?) that she could not lower herself to be with him. But perhaps had her father not been watching, and had she not felt so restricted she would have returned his feelings.

Apparently someone forgot to protect her arms when the vengeance demon make-up was put on once, and when it was taken off it pulled off her arm hair and made her cry.

She thought the writing on BtVS was so good because of how characters were conceived with built-in chemistry. For example, an Anya would have a friend just like Halfrek. Caring, but also controlling. “There’s a Halfrek there going, ‘sweetie, you’re not doing that’.”

I believe she was also asked if anyone contacted her about appearing as the First but she said no. [Great idea though, wouldn't that have messed with Anya's head? Ah the many, many missed opportunities of S7.]

She spends her downtime with friends & family, returning to NY to work, and doing volunteer work with Richard Dreyfus’s organization.

#################

Then came **Danny, Adam Busch and the surprise guest of the con, Amber Benson** , who we’d just found out the night before would be appearing. Apparently she just flew in and wasn’t expecting to be doing the Q&A at all and had to be coaxed into doing it. (As Adam noted, “Great place to be having a personal conversation.”) They had no chair for her so one was pulled from the audience but it was too short. So Adam sat on it between the other two until another high chair could be found. And after 5 minutes Danny persuaded Amber to take off her baseball cap which was obscuring most of her face.

Danny was, as usual, hilarious (I’d seen him once before on stage with Tom in Chicago), and I might add, desperately needed on stage with Adam and Amber who were, it seemed to me, less than thrilled to be doing the event. I could get why Amber might not have been prepared but Adam shouldn’t have been. Maybe he’s always a little dour. He did have some great lines during the Q&A though, and played off Danny well. Amber was only there for half of it since she was hurried off to take photos with about 10 people who had bought one with her but could not be around on Sunday to take them with the rest of her customers.

As soon as the 3 arrived on stage, Danny began by asking Adam what it was like killing Tara. Adam replied “Not as much fun as watching you die.”

When a taller chair was brought in for Adam, Danny commented “I liked Adam down there. It was the first time.”

When Danny was asked if he’d gotten laid on Gilmore Girls he first joked “On the set or off?” Then he said that “What’s funny is that after we shot the scene I weeped.”

When people’s cell phones would go off, Danny had a running gag of stopping and demanding to know who was calling.

Amber claimed that the giant billboard of Danny from “Superstar” is still on the old Buffy lot and the current users are trying to give it away.

When asked what the group would be doing if they were not at this convention, Danny replied that he’d probably be at another convention waiting in line to get James Marsters’ autograph. And waiting. And waiting. Adam followed up with something I couldn’t catch and everyone groaned. “Oh, it’s funny when he does it!” Adam protested, pointing at Danny. Danny retorted, “With the beard you’re shifty-looking.” “I look Amish,” Adam disagreed.

Someone praised Amber for not giving in to the overly-thin appearance pressures. She discussed how unnatural magazine photos are, that no one looks like that. “Oh, let’s take the cellulite from Kate Moss’s ass.” When Amber suggested that the two guys on stage with her could have their pick of women from all over the world, “And you don’t want some woman you can’t hold on to...” neither was very quick to agree with her. “I’m just digging myself a hole here,” she said. “I did dump Kate Moss because of the cellulite,” Danny added.

Danny had a running joke during slow moments, saying he was often distracted thinking about how pretty he was, and was the prettiest boy he knew.

When asked what TV performances they admired, Adam joked about Tammy Faye Baker on the “Surreal Life.” Danny mentioned Andre Brougher on “Homicide”, Ian McShane on “Deadwood” Frances Conroy on “Six Feet Under”and James’ performance on BtVS. Then Danny mentioned he met the actor who played “Mini-me” and that he was very short, even for a little person. Adam cracked that he couldn’t believe the Q&A had come to Danny bragging about how he was taller than Mini-me. “Not Martin Sheen, not Danny DeVito, but Mini-me.” “I am taller than Danny DeVito,” Danny rebutted. He added that he didn’t watch much TV but did watch “South Park” and “The Daily Show.”

Adam and Danny joked about a Willow lookalike reporter in England who interviewed the Trio and clearly had a problem with Warren having killed Tara. She was rather hostile to Adam who asked “You’re not going to help me promote my album are you?” “No.” “Whoa, issues.” Danny said. “It was! It was like ,” Adam agreed. “Danny Strong, star of “Seabiscuit”, Tom Lenk, (something), cocksucker Adam Busch...”

When someone asked Adam if it was actually him or an effect they used for the flaying scene, Danny joked “They skinned him alive. But to keep kosher you have to –“

When asked about his big scene in “Earshot,” and how the crew reacted, Danny said “They were all eating Chinese food. I hadn’t done many episodes, so I was asking ‘Can I have some Chinese food?’ and then Sarah goes, “Danny, do you want some Chinese food?’ and I’m like ‘Sarah Michelle Gellar just spoke to me. And I get Chinese food.’ What I just gave you? Is a true insight into life on the set.” Adam nodded emphatically.

Someone mentioned to Danny that she had never realized how many episodes he had been in before “Earshot” because she had never noticed him. “You didn’t have to say that. You could have just thought that and not said it” he joked. As she kept on going, saying his character appeared to be a running gag for the producers, Adam jumped in and said one of the kids at the con had asked him at the cocktail party, “’Do you feel bad there’s such a small crowd around you?’ And I looked over at Tony’s crowd, and I looked over at Danny’s crowd, and I said ‘Yes.’” The lady spoke up again saying that she’d really grown to appreciate Danny’s role in the show and he said “Were we married once? Because now you’re starting to sound like an ex-wife. ‘I FINALLY appreciate you, finally.’”

Adam mentioned his band’s living room tours were a way of protesting Clear Channel’s grip on the concert marketplace. “We’ve been doing this for 2 years now and I can safely say we’ve had no effect on Clear Channel whatsoever.”

When told they could only take one final question, Danny exhorted a potential hand-waver that it had to be really good, because it was the last one. “Just tell them it’s six-inches and say goodnight,” Adam jumped in. “It’s nine,” Danny corrected. The question was what other character they’d like to have played on BtVS and who they’d like to have a relationship with. Adam said “I’d like to be Jonathan masturbating. Then I’d be Jonathan but I’d be with myself.” Danny said he loved the character of Anya, so he’d want to be in a relationship with her. He wouldn’t want to be the character because he loved Emma’s portrayal of her. So he guessed he might be Xander.

#################

After Danny and Adam left JCB had to delay for a while because Andy Hallett was running late -- something which his Q&A made clear is par for the course for him. He was supposed to host the Friday night karaoke party but apparently there was some sort of travel delay and he never made it. Tony Head subbed in for a song or two. So JCB took some questions and it was apparent that controversy had spread quickly. During the auction 5 seats were auctioned for the banquet, one next to Amber, 2 beside Tony, and 2 beside Tom Lenk who was just arriving that afternoon. Tony’s went for nearly $400 a piece I believe whereas the others were around $130-150 or so. Thing was that the folks who had already paid $80 for the banquet were either out the chance to get those seats (since most of them weren’t in the room) or had to pay the auction price above the cost of their seats whereas those who hadn’t planned to go at all got a good seat for only twice the price or less.

The other thing was that seats for the banquet were being assigned at random so people couldn’t necessarily sit with friends. Given that there were only six celebrity tables anyway (Amber sat next to Adam), most people weren’t going to be anywhere near the guests as it was. The other lucky bit, at least for the day-passers, was that Tony had asked that his after-dinner performance be opened up to anyone as a standing-room only offer for $10 apiece. So really a lot of people paid $80 and got nothing more than a hotel meal and a seat for it. 

Andy had supposedly just gotten up and had also come in from the bar with a coke which he couldn’t seem to figure out what to do with for a few minutes. He said he’d picked up something at the bar he thought was a napkin but was actually a latex glove. He said maybe it would come in handy over the weekend. Someone took it from him at the end of his talk. I know he was tired but he seemed drunk to me, or maybe a combination of forcing himself awake, then forcing himself to sleep, then forcing himself awake again. I also know he rambles, but that can be entertaining as I don’t imagine anyone’s all that concerned what he talks about. But he was having trouble holding on to his thoughts, and he seemed rather distracted. He was amusing and I enjoyed being able to see him but I also found myself rather relieved when the Q&A ended because it was somewhat too disjointed to go on much longer.

Andy apologized for missing the karaoke event but was told Tony had subbed in and sang “Georgia.” Andy talked about how nice the property was, since it sat on a golf course, and asked if there were any golfers in the room. Apparently, no. Then he asked about the lake and whether one could swim in it. I couldn’t hear the answer why not but he replied, “Oh, so you could only swim in it once. I can think of a few people who should go for a dip. Fellow cast members.” He then mentioned that he had just rolled out of bed and it would probably be a late night because of the show, meaning Common Rotation. People told him Tony would also be performing. “Oh,” Andy nodded, pretending to be put out by Tony’s popularity. “Tony, the water is GREAT! You’ll love it, I’ll meet you down there, go on in!”

Andy spotted someone’s camera and mentioned he had had 3 of them but they all stopped working. He swore it wasn’t his fault (though he later mentioned throwing one at a wall!), then digressed into talking about using iMovie to make a video for Amy Acker’s wedding, which he still hasn’t finished. He instead gave her a matching set of bathrobes with “Con Robes by Lorne” (her nickname for him was “Con Queen”) and a martini glass embroidered on them. He had a small one made up for her son as a birth gift but it disappeared out of his car. 

Alexis and J “those two heathens” stole one of his cameras from his trailer and made a mock-documentary about him, interviewing everyone on the set about him and “everyone dogged me.” They made it look like a hidden camera had shot the footage. He described how the wardrobe people said “Does he know how stupid he looks? He looks like a big, fat circus clown.” Then Alexis and J were talking to each other, with Alexis asking “Are you waiting for him too?” and J responding “And his lines!” And Alexis goes “What lines? He can’t remember anything!” They even got the fire marshal -- who was on set to supervise the use of incense -- talking into his walkie-talkie going “Yeah, I’m here watching this green idiot—“

Andy said he’d like to make a video for the fans, but considering how long it had been since Amy had been married and she still didn’t have her video...

Mentioning that it was almost exactly a year since he suffered congestive heart failure due to a tooth abscess that had remained untreated, he said he was feeling much better. He was supposed to have taken a year off but was very bored and had started “whipping out iMovies” during that time and working on his music. He joked that he kept looking at a particular woman in the audience who had earlier indicated she also used iMovies, and said “I don’t mean to look at you every time I say that, especially when I say ‘whipping out’.”

He mentioned he wasn’t supposed to keep anything from the set but had some Lorne horns at home. He then went into a story about how the horns were removed. David in particular liked pulling them off when his makeup was removed. One had to remove them with a quick snapping turn, and only Dayne the make-up artist and David knew how to do it properly. Dayne would then put all the horns in a bucket and said he would have a contest at the end of the year for who could guess how many were in the bucket.

He mentioned his Dad loves to tell people about how much the cast of the Lorne head (when the character was beheaded) cost, and he keeps changing it and hiking up the price. “He can’t remember anything to save his life. Gee, I wonder where I get that from.”

Andy said that the gag reel for AtS S5 was “pathetic. I don’t know who put it together or what they were doing but I thought it stunk. It didn’t make me laugh at all. The gag reel made it look to me like we were a bunch of stiffs.” He joked that if he could put a gag reel together we might be able to see it in 2025.

He said what was funny about “Smile Time” was that you keep forgetting the puppet is a puppet. Andy kept forgetting the line about how Framkin started out. He ran the crew over the lunch break because he kept laughing. The director lay on the floor squeezing Andy’s ankle to keep him together long enough for the line but it just made him laugh more. Amy’s laughter was the worst at distracting him, and at one point she and Alexis had to leave the room to say their lines.

He was afraid of Kelly Manners.

He loved killing Lindsay. Found out about it when Christian came up to him and said “Oh man, what a way out." The scene was kept so secret that the actors’ agents couldn’t see it and for rehearsals all the crew was sent out of the room. Andy joked about how ridiculous that was. They were about to film it anyway! He suggested maybe they were supposed to come back and cover their eyes the whole time. They’d hear a gun go off, then they’d see Christian on the ground. “Well, wonder what happened here?” Apparently Christian’s reaction was much like his character’s. So Andy found this hilarious.

Liked the fact that Lorne left as he wasn’t a fighter and didn’t want to be involved in a fight that had no end. Besides, “I think he was just fed up with Angel’s shenanigans.”

#################

Then came Tony Head who was dressed in a madras shirt that made him look rather dadlike. Not a problem for me, but let’s just say it's particularly difficult to get the Buffy-Giles ship with that visual. I found it somewhat entertaining (and refreshing) that he seems to resolutely deflect any suggestion that he’s a sex object by giggling and gently mocking the “whoo-hoos” and other assorted sounds to that effect. On the other hand, also rather interesting given the fact that his career’s biggest boost came from playing a sexy guy. I mean, tons more people probably still recognize him from the Taster’s Choice ads (at least in the U.S.) than his role as Giles.

Tony’s Q&A seemed to go on the longest, not sure if it actually did. Some of the usual questions but enough variation to keep it interesting. He struck me a bit like Kali Rocha. More relaxed, more accustomed to the Q&As, I’m sure, but also pretty professional about it with a quick exit.

Tony had pitched an idea to Joss about Giles having killed someone a while back and it turned out the murdered person had a twin, who would return for revenge. Joss said it was too dark for BtVS.

The filming in England at the beginning of S7 took forever. Despite the constant rain the DP made it look great but the dolly grip was unprofessional and “fucked up every take.” So Joss didn’t have a good experience working there.

Discussed the charity he supports in Gambia teaching locals how to care for horses, which they have no experience with or resources to learn about working with them. This is for not just for humanitarian but economic reasons as it will make the folks more productive. He resisted discussing Bush’s attitudes to Africa and the rest of the world.

Talked about how he learned to walk in stilettos by practicing around the house. His partner came home one day to find him vacuuming furtively!

Said “Manchild” probably won’t come back because it was one of the BBC’s most expensive half-hour shows ever due to the toys and production values.

Loved being able to say “pillock” on TV.

Thought the Buffy promo pilot was awful and he was overacting. However he mentioned that he asked Joss how they conceived of Giles, whether it was Hugh Grant or Alan Rickman. He was told “a bit of both” and that was how he came up with Giles. 

When asked who his mentors were he first mentioned Sarah his partner, and then his L.A. acting teacher.

He said Adrian Paul scared him when mentioning he sat on the roof with his shotgun during “the riots.” He thought very well of the actress he had most of his scenes with in “Highlander.” Thought it was “extraordinary” that his character could be shot in the chest with an uzi and still live.

He said the prop people were delighted that he liked to work with them in scenes and began to seek him out to suggest things.

When asked what was his favorite sex scene he laughed and said he’d only had kissing scenes. He mentioned Robia and said “there was this snog in the library, I seem to remember Alyson was extremely ‘You-you were kissing!’ But there were no tongues!”

Tony giggled and swore through the Q&A, and actually said “Tee hee” at one point.

That evening Tony did some songs to backing tracks and other with acoustic guitar. Some were covers, some from his album and he closed with “Sweet Transvestite” which was by itself worth the $10. He got someone up on stage to do Brad’s lines. When the woman hopped up there he said “Fuck, you’re tall!” as she beat him by an inch or two. He played up to her quite a bit during the performance so she probably had a great night!

While we were waiting for the show to start however Amber and Adam got up and left. I imagine Adam did because he had to go sound check with his band as Common Rotation was playing immediately after Tony in another location. However the two had an air of escape about them. They didn’t make eye contact with anyone standing about by the door, although no one said anything to them either. Amber did return shortly before Tony finished.

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On Sunday the trio did a Q&A. Unlike the day before Danny was fairly quiet, Adam was the same, and Tom was only slightly more awake than the other two. Or maybe he just got more questions since he hadn't been around on Saturday. They did perk up from time to time and clearly have great banter when they're more rested.

Thought it was funny that when they came on, Tom was trying to test out the mic and he and Danny did a few “Check” “Check check”’s with each other.

Tom mentioned he had done a Budweiser commercial but because of its mean humor regarding a dog he doubted it would test well and ever air.

When asked what profession they would not like to have, Danny mentioned being a male prostitute. Tom said he’d be his pimp.

Danny: “Tom Lenk is a poet, and a scholar. Very tender lover.”  
Tom: “When we spoon I can be on the outside.”  
Adam: “I like to watch.”

When asked what got them into acting, Danny replied that he had always wanted to do so since he was young. He loved watching movies. “When I tell this story, it’s going to be amazing that I’m not gay, although the jury is still out. But when I was 5 I used to pretend I was a hairdresser, a French hairdresser, and do my Mom’s hair with a French accent. And then I was into the movie “All That Jazz” and I would run around and do imitations of Roy Scheider going ‘It’s showtime folks!’”

Adam added that his father questioned his heterosexuality when he left Little League to do theater.

Warren wasn’t originally planned to be the leader of the Trio, that role was to go to the Tucker character. When Tom auditioned ME decided they wanted the character of Andrew (who was obviously not a leader) and rewrote the part for him.

Adam was asked about his time working for Nickleodeon when he played the part of Shaggy on “The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo.” He said both his parents were teachers but he didn’t do well in school. Then as a teen he was offered the chance to “go live in Orlando with your pot-smoking brother and work on television in a theme park!” And I said “Ok!” And he got tutored on the set and found he did quite well when he was just discussing topics. He used to wave at the tour trams when they went by pointing out the tutoring center. He also wished he could work on the variety show filming across the way from them.

Tom said part of his performance in the episode where he was interrogated came from watching “Prime Time Glick.”

When answering questions about how they prepare for roles Danny complained that he paid his acting coach $50 to say either “Ok” or “Do it better.” Tom said he could do that for him and Danny pointed out that Tom would get impatient because Danny would want to keep doing it over and over, saying “Ok, go ahead.”

Referring to the rehearsals, Tom said, “I wouldn’t do it. I’m like ‘Dude, you’re not going to get it anyway.’”

Tom plays classical music with a cellist and Felicia Day, the actress who played Vi on BtVS who is a highly trained violinist.

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After the Trio came Andy who was more coherent but started the discussion asking why the bar wasn't open before noon and if they served anything other than beer and wine afterwards...We'd passed him in the lobby the night before as he was deeply engaged chatting with con-goers, so much so that he mentioned he never got around to going to the Common Rotation show and asked how it had gone. He ended with his story about the school bus (a staple apparently, though new to us) but got cut kind of short by JCB because he had to get checked out of his room.

Tony began his Q&A alone, and at one point could not hear a question being asked from the row behind us so he hopped off stage and stood right in front of me (TALL man) to hear the question more clearly. After a bit JCB startled him on stage so that he actually leaped off his chair. She was coming on to announce Amber would be joining him.

The questions were split between the two, some of which they answered together. 

Unfortunately the tape of all of their appearance and Andy’s was impossible to understand, although most of Andy’s involved the story of buying a school bus in his teens and his illicit night out with it (given his lack of license and registration). It was quite a funny story, although his digressions and opinions of people in his neighborhood made it even funnier. He also told the story of his father mocking his “tough weekend. Is your wrist sore from signing all those autographs? I just raked three acres of leaves!” and then dropping the phone. His mother then picked up and said “You’re father’s in a mood.”

Amber mentioned that she and Alyson had some awful wardrobe assigned to them. She said one of Alyson’s had fuzzy people on it and she asked “How old are you?” She complained that hers were often so voluminous they made her look much bigger than she was. “If I had to jump out of a plane they could serve as a parachute! They were like 5 layers!” She was relieved to wear the corset in the musical.

Amber is tired of the Tara’s death contoversy. She said she still gets faxes about it.

Asked about Tony’s album, Tony mentioned he wanted to work with people he knew. Amber mentioned going over to rehearse with Tony and when she walked into the room she heard singing but no one was in the room. Then Tony and James came out of the closet where they’d been practicing.

Tony was asked about whether Giles had a sexual relationship with Ethan Rayne. He gave a shudder. Asked about Ethan's fate he said he didn't think Ethan's return would have fit in with where storylines went in the future. (It would have been pretty interesting to see him as The First, however...)

Someone asked them if they ever read fanfic. Both said they didn’t, although Amber remembered Andy telling them the story of the Lorne-Angel-soap story he saw. Amber joked about Angel telling Lorne “Let me take off that green.” Tony asked if Snyder had been paired with anyone. JCB came in at that moment and asked if Tony was mocking Armin Shimmerman who is apparently her neighbor. Tony mentioned something about how Armin had his ears backlit.

The Q&A ended spot on time as JCB was trying to get people on planes and the autograph sessions running as quickly as possible.


End file.
